Author: d.morales
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Neoliberalism’s Effect on Latin America
In this article, Rafael Bernal of The Hill presents attestations from top economic official and president of the IBD Maurico Claver-Carone, who suggests that the bank’s primary focus is in fostering economic prosperity and security in Latin America. Claver-Carone believes that the key towards healing Latin American economies is through good, quality job creation with a focus on funding “small-medium sized business[es] owned by [women]” (Bernal). The author goes on to further express that US stability is tied to Latin American stability in that a stable economy should lead to lower rates of crime and immigration to the United States.
This article fails to acknowledge the lasting impact of neoliberal reforms in Latin America and how they have affected the region’s economic and political stability as a whole. Laissez faire capitalism and neoliberalism became the dominant economic system during the 1980’s and 1990’s as two powerful world leaders, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, sang the praises of a freer world market. This individualist economic view was exported to Latin America through ideological crusaders such as Chile’s Chicago Boys and US economist Milton Friedman, men that challenged the dominant dependency theory and instead advocated for a free market system.
After success in Chile, a Latin America largely skeptical of authoritarianism and imperialism slowly began to adopt the new system dubbed the Washington Consensus. This system deregulated markets, opened the economy with low trade barriers, increased foreign investment, and cut social spending in hopes of achieving a free-enterprise economy and libertarian spirit. The system enjoyed years of success in the region but the cracks of neoliberalism ultimately revealed themselves to the public and now the system continues to heighten individual suffering in the region.
According to William I. Robinson, “neoliberal adjustment programs have resulted in a fall in popular consumption, a deterioration of social conditions, a rise in poverty, immiseration and insecurity, heightened inequalities, social polarization, and resultant political conflict” (Problems 276). Neoliberalism in Latin America was an attractive policy in the ‘80s and ‘90s but by the turn of the century, political instability and polarization, violence, and poverty have skyrocketed. The assumption that job creation and small business investments can address the souring laissez faire economic system and increasing violence in Latin America is short sighted and redundant. Friedman’s suggestion that “acute mystery and distress” can be combated through neoliberal reforms and traditional capitalist systems have failed as the needs of the poor go unchecked and social unrest and instability increase.
In recent years, the region has experienced instability by way of inefficient economic reform that prioritizes big business in budget spending, infringements on democracy by neoliberal and authoritarian populist leaders, growing rates of hunger and malnutrition, and now the economic impact of COVID-19 on a region in which limited social spending takes a toll on vulnerable populations. A history of extractive economic systems, rise and fall of social revolutions, and the influence of free market systems have created a social and economic problem in which neoliberal reformists will find that the solution is more complex and complicated than bolstering the economy.
Works Cited
Bernal, Rafael. “Top Officials Stress Job Creation as Key to Latin American Economic Development.” TheHill, The Hill, 17 Nov. 2020, thehill.com/latino/526267-officials-stress-job-creation-for-latin-american-economic-development.
Problems in Modern Latin American History : Sources and Interpretations, edited by James A. Wood, and Anna Rose Alexander, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/baruch/detail.action?docID=5743856.
Mexico and the Juárez Presidency
The photo entitled “Newspaper Kiosk” is a black and white photograph capturing a busy sidewalk and its surroundings in the heart of Mexico City. Tulane University places this image somewhere between the years of 1850-1900, a significant period in Mexican history that marks the transition of Mexico City from a conservative hub to a liberal mainstay of the Benito Juárez presidency. The image includes a few residential and commercial buildings, clearly modeled after European architecture, and depicts various townspeople dressed in fashions that reflect their wealth. Despite the bustling nature of the picture, the clear focal point of the image is a small newspaper kiosk and the line of patrons outside of it.
The existence of the newspaper kiosk itself leads me to believe that this photograph is more accurately pinned to the Juárez presidency rather than the Porfiriato period. The Juárez presidency and the constitution born from La Reforma period stressed the importance of free speech and widespread education. In a healthy democracy, the promotion of literacy and freedom of the press are cornerstones to the system and its well-oiled function. Best stated by Safford, “[Liberals] called not merely for individual freedoms but for an absolute freedom of conscience, of the press, of education, and of commerce” (Problems 108). The Porfiriato regime was known for a distrust of the press and participated in the consolidation of newspapers into El Imparcial, a state funded newspaper that silenced competing papers. Other publishers could not keep up with the low cost of the government regulated paper as well as the active silencing of journalists during the Porfiriato period (Excelsior).
Another signifier of this photograph belonging to the Juárez presidency is the existence of a storefront operating under the name “Philipp,” a name that is traditionally of German origin. The operation of a business by presumably foreign occupants could reflect the liberal free trade reforms and openness to neoliberalism that was proposed through La Reforma. Liberalization often included an adherence to capitalist structure, making the existence of foreign companies in Mexico likely. Of the people in the photograph, there are men and women of various social status based upon their appearance. A woman in the forefront wears long shawls while another sports a tailored, tiered dress. One man wears a formal three piece suit while most others opt for presentable yet casual button ups and slacks. The coexistence of varying social classes in the urban city center are not out of place as the Juárez presidency made social mobility a possible achievement. La Reforma period birthed a new generation in terms of social origin as it was mostly composed of people whose social mobility relied on liberal reforms made possible during the Independence era. (Problems 106).
Colonial Life in Saint Domingue
Colonial Life in Saint Domingue
Bombardopolis ou Bombarde dans l’isle de St. Domingue is an ink on paper illustration that depicts the town structure and life in the northern part of what is now modern day Haiti. Bombardopolis, as stated by the image notes, was a colonial town run under the control of German settlers that were given power by the French after a “disastrous French expedition… to colonize Kourou in French Guiana” (JCB notes). This image appears to show a well established town of enslaved people performing daily activities that exist outside of plantation work, pointing toward a sense of self-sufficiency and ability to exercise personal freedoms.
It is speculated that this image was illustrated by Nicolas Perignon, a famous French painter who was best known for his depictions of various European cityscapes and rustic landscapes. If this painter was indeed the illustrator of this photo, the date of its illustration could be put somewhere between Bombardopolis’s settlement in 1765 to the date of Pérignon’s death in 1782 (Art Institute of Chicago). This information is crucial to the image as this would place the scene before the August 21st, 1791 Saint Domingue rebellion that swept the northern part of Haiti in a violent yet successful slave uprising. The image notes state that this illustration does in fact depict enslaved black people but the location appears to be calmer and more laid back than a plantation settlement.
The image itself depicts a small colonial town in an impressively organized, grid-like structure that differs from a traditional plantation environment. Some clues point toward this community existing outside of plantation work and enslaved labor as the townspeople seem self sufficient in their daily activities. There are structurally sound and uniform houses placed on dirt roads with small plots of land resembling independently run farms, perhaps to sustain the townspeople rather than for agricultural economy purposes. This area of Saint Domingue was best known for sugar and coffee production, a crop that is usually tall and unruly, therefore the plots of land surrounding the houses do not point towards being a part of plantation labor. These settlements are also constructed in a way that makes a central plot of land resembling an orchard the focus of the town, just large enough to feed the town but not for export purposes. Outside of farm work, there appear to be multiple towns people holding sticks approximately 5 feet long, suggesting that this community is within walking distance of a water source that provides adequate fishing. The movements of the people in this image seem sporadic and free unlike the heavily uniform and controlled behavior of those enslaved on plantations.
The people in the image are dressed in clothing of various occasions, with some in full length dresses and casual suits and others in simple linen clothing. In the left foreground, there are a group of men and women in lightweight working clothes that contrast to those on the right who wear more formal attire. The group on the left appear to be walking into town with fishing poles and bags, only stopping to study the group of children on the right who are dancing and playing music. It is in this activity that you can see some semblance of secrecy in this society as this freeform activity takes place in the more remote, mountainous side of the town that is free from the eyes of elders and German settlers. The use of punishment on Bombardopolis may come less from corporal forms but more so from the presence of Christian doctrine and institutions. A church is located in the mid-ground just across from the orchard-like town square, its central location suggesting the significance of Christianity to the community. The children that are dancing appear to be dressed modestly, in line with Christian beliefs, and could be receiving religious teachings from the institution.
Works Cited
Bombardopolis ou Bombarde dans l’isle de St. Domingue, John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Brown UNiversity, Providence, R.I. 02912
“Nicolas Pérignon.” The Art Institute of Chicago, www.artic.edu/artists/100684/nicolas-perignon.